Karen, why did you decide to sign up for Soulful Decluttering?

Karen Caterson, aka Square-Peg Karen

I saw the class mentioned in a KaleidoSoul newsletter and it sounded just right for me.

I’d noticed that clutter held me back (in a number of areas), and I’d been working on decluttering and organizing for awhile, but no systems ever stuck. The class sounded hope-full to me. And indeed—it was! 

Tell me about your clutter situation before the course began. 

Well, I’m very visual – so it works best for me to keep things out where I can see them (but only if I want to be able to remember that they exist – grin). I’m also very creative – with loads of projects going all the time (loads of projects!).

Imagine the possibilities for messes, decluttery spaces and disorganization!

Did you have any breakthroughs during the course? Tell us about one.

I can’t share just one! I had a number of AHA’s, but the biggest breakthrough came through envisioning how I wanted things to look! Prior to the class my decluttering and organizing had always been short term (i.e. get rid of this pile, clean the office up a bit); envisioning wrapped my decluttering and organizing around how I wanted things—gave me a purpose and something long-term to move toward.

And hope! Hope was another breakthrough thing for me! There were times (before the class) when I assumed I was never going to be tidy, be able to find things—was even able to occasionally convince myself that I was fine with that—but the course helped me move through clutter, love the changes—and embrace hope around creating inviting spaces in my home.

The course runs for three weeks to prevent decluttering burnout. How did that timeframe work for you?

The timeframe was perfect. Nevertheless, it did not keep me from decluttering burnout because I thought I could be the exception – the student who didn’t need to follow Nancy’s suggestions about going slow and steady—sigh. I caught fire and burned—got a LOT done and then burned out. But I came back to the process the “right” way and have kept at it steadily for awhile now (note: pay attention to Nancy, she knows of what she speaks!)

I have a feeling you’re not the only one who didn’t believe me! How is your clutter situation these days?

I have an ongoing relationship with my space now—and come back repeatedly, with the tools I gained, to keep doing the work (the fact that this is ongoing doesn’t freak me out anymore). I don’t get that sense of overwhelm I used to get when I tried to figure out what to get rid of, what to keep (and how to store/organize what I was keeping).

Anything else you’d like folks to know about the class?

Nancy’s a wise (and gentle!) teacher and she’s created a practical, helpful (and gentle!) class for anyone interested in creating a different space for themselves.

Thanks! How has working to declutter affected your creative process? 

Great question! First the process of decluttering made me aware that clutter had been affecting my creativity (much less time to create when you have to spend craploads of time hunting things down!—plus the frustration of having to hunt things down was a ready excuse for not getting to things—or finishing them).

Since decluttering and moving toward maintenance of my spaces I have more time to create—and (a bit hard to explain) more freedom in my creative process. Somehow the process of figuring out what I wanted and didn’t want in my spaces helped me become more aware of choices available to me. This has been empowering—and has added zooom to getting things done!

That’s fabulous, Karen! I’m so glad that you got, and continue to get, so much from the Soulful Decluttering course!

The next course begins on June 2nd, and all the details are here. Please join us!

The good news? It was a great excuse to get rid of a lot of stuff, and expunge I did. The bad news? I spent way too long on it and burned out really, really badly in the process. What does clutter burnout look like? For me, it’s about shutting down at the mere idea of dealing with more STUFF. I’ve been steadily coming out of the burnout, but it’s taken a while and I’m still not all the way there.

The really good news is that this experience led me to create the course I wish I could have taken last year. The course that would have kept me from burning out. The one that linked me up with a community of other folks who were all going through the same basic process (though parts of it are individual to everyone!) so I’d have known I wasn’t alone and could have commiserated and collaborated with others when I was low on inspiration.

Not only will this course help you get rid of excess stuff, it’ll also help get yout back in touch with your creative voice. It’s tough to be creative when you’re surrounded by distractions (especially the ones you know should go).

Soulful Decluttering starts on Sunday, June 2. It’s a 3-week class that gently gets you rethinking your space and making manageable progress you can be proud of. And, most importantly, it keeps you from burning out.

Tomorrow, we’ll be talking to a Soulful Decluttering alum about her experience in the course. Until then, you can find all the details and sign up here. And if you have any questions, you can always contact me!

When I watch this video, I’m intrigued by the battle. First, there’s the fascinating juxtaposition of 3D vs. 2D. Then there’s the amount of work that had to go into the animation, and the imagination to have thought of it in the first place. The thing that intrigues me the most, however, is the way this video illustrates the creative process.

I remember being in high school and reading, for the first time, an author’s comments about how his characters had minds of their own. I was in about 11th grade, so I was about 16; I had been inhaling books all my life and had only in the previous year or so really started trying to write much. My reaction to this author (I want to say it was John Dos Passos, but Google is not helping me here) was ferocious and immediate. “What a load of crap!!” I thought. “You’re the author! You’re in charge! What kind of nut thinks his characters have minds of their own?!”

You can imagine my shock many years later, when I was working on the first big writing project I’d tackled in years, and found myself having an argument with a character about where he was from. “Chicago,” he said.

“Never been there,” I said, “so I can’t write it. Can’t you be from someplace I’ve been to? Or someplace I can make up?”

“Sorry,” he replied. “I’m from Chicago.”

“Well, okay,” I finally said, “but if you have to be from Chicago, you’re gonna be a teacher, because I know how to write that.”

I figured I’d finally crossed over into the Land of Looney, so I was relieved when I talked to some other writer friends and found out that I wasn’t alone. I thought of that author interview and issued a long-overdue mental apology. Then I headed to the library and took out every book they had on Chicago. I even bought a map.

The Maker vs. Marker video reminds me so much of that incident, and the other creative exchanges that have followed (only most aren’t quite so violent!). Characters know who they are even when I haven’t figured it out yet, so I listen when they assert themselves. Collage goes according to plan…except when it doesn’t (and that in itself is a great lesson in dealing with perfectionism). Is it possible that, on some level, all art is at odds with its creator? Or it is more that both need to learn how to get along with each other, to work together so that both can exist in peace?

I know there are plenty of other stories of creative projects taking on a life of their own, and of artists coming to terms with their creations, so please share yours in the comments!

Image courtesy Flickr user toffehoff

I can’t believe the month has gone by so quickly, and in many ways I also can’t believe I made it. I took on this challenge for the same reason a lot of us do things that are out of out comfort zones: just to see if I could.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the mere idea at the beginning and I thought I must be crazy to sign up. I frequently have struggled to come up with something to talk about once a week, so to try to post something every day? For a month? Good lord. And yet…here we are, and I’ve done it.

So what have I learned from all this? I’ve learned that:

• If I expect (or perhaps demand!) it, inspiration will come from somewhere.
• There’s a cool thing called the Liebster Blog Award–and I’ve now been nominated twice (working on my responses to both!)
• I know more people offline who read my blog than I’d thought.
• There’s a strange sort of serendipity in this kind of challenge; several people have told me how helpful and well-timed my posts were for them. (I can claim no credit for the latter!)
• Experimenting with series (the permission series, the idea of doing something more mellow or meditative on Sundays) can be fun and broaden my perspectives–and, I hope, yours!
• There are a lot of other cool blogs out there, and doing a challenge like this is a great way to find them.

There are probably others, too, that will come to mind later, but for now, that’s plenty.

So what happens now? Well, that remains to be seen. Right now, my plan is to go back to at least one weekly post, and if the spirit moves me to share something extra, I will. I may play around with continuing the permission series. I may keep looking for something off-beat and mellow to post on Sundays. It’ll depend in part on what I find out there in the world, and in part on my own schedule—and also on whether or not it turns out that I miss writing something here every day.

In the meantime, here’s my challenge to you: Go find something you’re not sure you can do, and give it a shot. See what happens when you commit to making something happen for a week, or a month, or you could get very Kaizen-Muse about it and try for a day or even an hour. Challenge yourself to write every day for fifteen minutes, or to go without sugar for a week, or to listen to something totally outside your normal musical realm every day whether you like it or not. Explore your world and see what you learn!

The quote reminds me of the Maya Angelou quote on my home page, which says, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”

Both quotes pretty well speak for themselves, so I’ll only say this: I’ve talked here before about how we’re all creative no matter what we’ve been told or led to believe. People will laugh when I tell them I’m a creativity coach, and they say, “Oh, I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” I dread these moments, because there’s no polite way to say, “No, sorry, you’re wrong,” no matter how true it is.

If the last time you drew a picture or played an instrument or built something just for the fun of it was when you were a kid, consider this quote both permission and encouragement to let your inner child out to play again. It’ll be good for you in so very many ways.

Jeremiah Anthony is, as he says in the comments on this video, making the world “a better place one tweet at a time.” What could be simpler than that?

We need to remember that bullying is, alas, not just for kids. It happens frequently among adults, especially in workplaces, but also in neighborhoods and even in governments (at every level). One of the best ways to counter the effects of bullying is to through encouragement. How can you make someone’s day better today, tomorrow, this week? Come up with an idea and then be sure to go do it!

A lot of people roll their eyes at the idea of anyone needing permission to succeed, but the fact is that fear of success is right up there next to fear of failure on the list of top fears. And it can be just as crippling. Some people see only positive sides to success, but not everyone does.

Fear of failure leaves you unable to move because you’re too scared that you’ll be embarrassed, ashamed, or any variety of other negative emotions if things don’t go well. Fear of success, on the other hand, looks like any of these:

If I do well with this project:

• they’ll expect me to do another one
• they’ll think I can do more than I know I’m capable of
• people will start paying attention to me, and I’m not sure I can handle that
• I’ll never have an escape route back to where I am now if I decide that this path isn’t for me
• they’ll all laugh at me if I change my mind and decide to do something else
• I’ll be responsible for what happens next

That’s more than enough to stop most people in their tracks. Here’s the thing: success is just…success. It doesn’t have to trap you into anything unless you decide it does. Look at Thomas Edison, for instance. He invented 1000 ways not to make a light bulb, and when he finally got one that worked, he moved on to other projects. He may have been most famous for the light bulb, but he didn’t let it define everything he did. He made kitchen appliances, baby furniture, gramophones, electric toasters, and a host of other things we take for granted now. We don’t even associate most of those with his name, but that’s okay.

Today, I’m giving you permission to succeed, and to do it on your terms.

Meet Your Inner Lizard

A lot of anxiety, procrastination, and perfectionism all boils down to fear. Fear that we won’t be good enough. Fear that someone else has already done it. Fear of being seen. Fear of receiving. Fear of failure. Fear of success. And that fear comes from the part of your brain called the amygdala (also known in common parlance as the “reptilian brain stem”—I tend to think of it as a lizard).

Your amygdala evolved to keep you safe—from things like sabre-toothed tigers and other predators. It doesn’t need to keep you safe from things like success or failure, but it hasn’t evolved that much. It still thinks that anything even slightly frightening is actually going to kill you.

Fortunately, you can outwit your amygdala, and here’s how: break your project down. And I mean really break it down. You need pieces that are so small that they won’t set off the amygdala and keep you from accomplishing anything. The step has to seem so ridiculously easy that there’s no question at all that you can do it. (Super-small steps are the “Kaizen” part of Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching.)

Defining Small Steps—REALLY Small

I discussed this idea a little bit in my post on “Small and Crappy” a few weeks ago, but here’s how it works. Let’s say you want to write that guest blog post, but you’re so nervous about it that you haven’t gone near your desk in a few weeks. You get nervous just looking at it, because it now represents the Big, Scary Blog Post.

Your first small step is not to schedule half an hour and start writing whatever comes into your head. Why? Because you’ll never do it. You haven’t so far, so why should this time be any different? You need a really, really small step.

Your first step is to go spend five minutes sitting at the desk. You don’t have to turn the laptop on. You don’t even have to pick up a pen. All you have to do is sit at the desk for five minutes. If you sit there longer, or you feel compelled to start writing, that’s awesome! But you do not have to do it. You’re just going to spend five minutes at the desk.

If that goes well, your next day’s five minutes might be to sit at the desk with your pen in your hands (or your laptop on, or whatever the next piece might be). And so on.

Give It A Try

You’ll know you hit on the next small step when your reaction is, “Well, of course I can do that for five minutes! Any idiot could manage that!” That’s your sign that your step poses no threat at all to your inner lizard.

What’s your first small step? For Diane, it might be thinking about where she could share a thoughtful comment on someone else’s blog. Just thinking about it. Step two might be to jot down a few names. She can build up step by step until she’s had such great interactions in the comments that posting a guest blog doesn’t seem scary anymore at all.

This is such a good question. There are several causes of this sort of anxiety (and a fair bit of the time, they gang up on us), so I’m going to break things down into a few posts, each focusing on a different cause. Today’s? Perfectionism.

The title above refers, of course, to the expression, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” It’s become a bit of a mantra of mine ever since I was in Kaizen-Muse coach training and discovered that, to my considerable surprise, I am a raging perfectionist.

Now, I don’t mean that I run around making sure that the corners of my towels are perfectly aligned or that the cans in my cupboard all face the same way and are just so. Plenty of people are like that, but, well, there’s a reason why I created my Soulful Decluttering course, and it sure wasn’t because my house looked like it belonged in Architectural Digest. In fact, that’s why I always figured, “Well, at least I’m not a perfectionist!” WRONG.

The other perfectionism is much more insidious.

It creeps into your head and says, “Nope, sorry–not good enough. It’ll never be good enough. Why are you even bothering?” It hooks up with its pal Comparison and says, “Seriously? You’ll never be able to compete with So-and-So. Who do you think you are?” And in its strongest form, it keeps you from starting in the first place, because if you’ll never be good enough, or if the work will never be perfect enough, what the heck is the point?

In the words of David Foster Wallace, “You know, the whole thing about perfectionism. The perfectionism is very dangerous, because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything. Because doing anything results in–It’s actually kind of tragic because it means you sacrifice how gorgeous and perfect it is in your head for what it really is.” And yet… “what it really is” could turn out to be better than what you imagined, or go in a different direction that leads you to something awesome. If you don’t try, you’ll never find out.

Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

The great thing about realizing your perfectionistic tendencies is that you spot them when they rear their heads and try to get in your way. If you can repeat that mantra in those moments, you have a better shot of

Put your work out there. Put it out even if it’s not the ideal you have in your head. What you have to say, and the way you say it, are worthy all on their own, no matter what’s come before or what comes after. (Click to tweet this.)

On a side note, if you’re really stuck in perfectionism, SoulCollage® can be a powerful tool to help you understand why and get yourself out!

I’m hoping, then, that you’ll help me plan where to go from here. I did this challenge because I honestly wasn’t sure that I could come up with something worth posting every day for a month. Obviously, I succeeded far beyond my initial expectations. But I don’t know what has been most helpful to you, what you might like to hear more or less about, or if there are topics I haven’t addressed that you’d like me to tackle.

So: is there anything I’ve discussed that you’d like to hear more about? Anything I haven’t talked about at all that you wish I would? Anything else that comes to mind a worthy (or perhaps unworthy) topic for discussion? Want more about SoulCollage®? Kaizen-Muse? Laughter Yoga? Or something more general? Now’s the time to let me know!

Give me a shout in the comments and I’ll see what I can do. Thanks!

Image by Marco Bellucci.